June 20th, 2023. The Open Spark w Ruth Wyand and Mark “Muleman” Massey.

Dave Eisner, I often think you have bad ideas. I’m often wrong. It’s true. You’re sometimes, occasionally, I’ll begrudgingly admit, absolutely right.

We’d had Ruth Wyand on the books for a long time. She’d contacted me about FocusMusic shows, and when the Board didn’t jump on her, I took a gamble and asked if she’d be interested in my open mic featured artist slot instead. My usual pitch, especially when I don’t know if someone’s going to be INSULTED that I’ve mentioned their name in connection with an open mic, is that “you’ll meet some cool people, including a local concert organizer or two, and there’s worse things to do with your time on a Tuesday night”.

Ha – I mean, if they’re anything like ME what’re they gonna DO? Take the night OFF?!

HA!!

In any case – Ruth’s been on the books for half a year and generally speaking I think it’s a) rude, b) potentially financially disastrous, and c) temporally TOO MUCH to double up on a feature – and so if Mark “Muleman” Massey had contacted ME about how he’d been in town this Tuesday night and would Love to come to the open mic, I’d NEVER have offered a… *gasp* DOUBLE FEATURE!!!

But Dave talked to him. Dave DID offer it to him. And Dave was absolutely right.

When Mark handed me this Dasani bottle and said he’d brought me something “special” I was dubious and at first thought I’d been handed the recycling. But there was something about his grin that reminded me he was from Mississippi, so I unscrewed the cap and took a CAREFUL sniff. He had brought me a most precious substance, sweet home made moonshine. It was warm and soothing and everything, everything, EVERYTHING was instantly better.

Enter one of the best Sparks we’ve ever had. Certainly one of the most packed. Certainly the longest. With TWO featured artist slots PLUS one of the longest lists we’ve ever had, we were overflowing with talent, and the room was packed.

And more to the point, that meant we had an amazing audience, more than enough for BOTH artists.

Huzzah my friends.

Huzzah!

We do the above this every Tuesday. Signup before 7. I start at 7. 7112 Willow Ave. in Takoma Park, MD. robsopenmics.ilyaimy.com for more information.

Tonight we were joined by :